Who will pay for the magical solution?
Moving towards value-based care

Who will pay for the magical solution?

Conversation with Dr. Preetha Reddy (Apollo Hospitals)

*For our first conversation, please refer to the article "Humans as a race have to go digital” posted on 21 June, 2021. 

Elisabeth Staudinger:

“Digital” almost seems like a magical solution for leapfrogging and creating access so quickly. One thing we, as a company, are always wondering is: who will pay for this? Do you see hospital groups, like Apollo Hospitals being the one to offer those services and be the ones providing the solutions? Or will there be a different type of delivery mechanism?

Dr. Preetha Reddy:

Apollo sees itself as a group which will deliver on these solutions, because our strategy happened pre-COVID-19. There is a separate arm of Apollo, which will deliver on digital health. But we're also seeing larger players globally, who were not health care providers. They have understood the fact that digital health can really impact peoples’ lives and are coming up with large scale e-penetration interventions in the digital health space.

You also said who's going to pay for this? I think that's a very vital question. If you look at the adoption of cell phone technology in a country like ours, the penetration is very high, and somebody is paying for it. So, if you take the number of people who are already paying for this kind of technology and then put away a minuscule portion of that for health insurance or for a health care fund for the nation, we can have a great impact. Health insurance has grown tremendously in a country like ours, which did not even have any health insurance even 15 years ago. There's been a remarkable increase in a year on year of about 30% to 40% penetration. People will adopt different ways of payment mechanisms and then we will transition from handling chronic illnesses to moving towards value-based health care. Can we intervene at the right time? Can we talk about prevention? Can we talk about precision medicine? Can we actually predict the onset of disease? We have to focus on keeping people well, because otherwise the economic backlash is going to be huge. Policies have to keep being framed to keep people healthy, to keep people well and not really spend a large amount of budgets on sickness. Going forward, we should see that happening.

Can we intervene at the right time? Can we talk about prevention? Can we talk about precision medicine? Can we actually predict the onset of disease? We have to focus on keeping people well, because otherwise the economic backlash is going to be huge. 

Elisabeth Staudinger:

The pandemic demonstrated very much also to governments how critical health care is for keeping the economy going and creating an environment that society can develop and the economy can thrive. Pre-COVID-19, the view was more: health care is something we need and we want but it's very expensive and we need to make sure it does not eat up all the other budgets. And now, I see that conversation is shifting to: how do we ensure a meaningful, well performing health care system in any country to make sure we are safe and we are protected. It's just so much more meaningful to catch diseases early before they get difficult to manage, not only physically but also financially.

Dr. Preetha Reddy:

I totally agree. I think health is a fundamental right and is a joint responsibility of the public and the private sector. We need to look at more cost effective options and, at the same time, focus on clinical outcomes.

In our next and last conversation of this series, Dr. Preetha and I will discuss the core challenges that need to be overcome to make significant progress towards a more value-based type of healthcare. Stay tuned.


Dr. Tapan Shah

Exponential Capital's Senior Partner | Corporate Venturing | Strategy - Product - Market - Geographic Expansion - Pricing | Digital Transformation - Industry 4.0 | M&A

3y

Nice conversation but I have some profound and diverse view on digitalization and value based Healthcare. I have my reservation on Healthcare, I believe we have the privilege to talk on hot topics but the ground demands are way different than what we see on top.Elisabeth Staudinger

Like
Reply
Dr Satchidananda Ray

Business Head-Rama Group, Ex-Jindal, Ex-Siemens, Ex-Philips, Ex Kantar,Ex-Laurus Bio, Ex Shining Consulting

3y

Great conversation content and strategic pointers Madam Thanks

Like
Reply

To view or add a comment, sign in

Insights from the community

Others also viewed

Explore topics